Actor Kevin Spacey, the voice of Hopper for Disney/Pixar's 1998 A Bug's Life, is born in South Orange, New Jersey. He also voiced Hopper for the 3D theme park short

It's Tough to Be a Bug.

1993:

Marcellite Garner, the original female voice of Minnie Mouse in such

early classics as Plane Crazy, The Gallopin' Gaucho, and The Barn

Dance, passes away at age 83 in Grass Valley, California. Starting at the Disney Studio at the

age of 19, Garner worked as a cel painter, but quickly advanced to the higher labor grade of inking the animator’s

pictures onto the cels. After about 6 months on the job, she became the voice of Minnie Mouse. In mid-1941 she

gave up her work at Disney to become a full-time mom. As a hobby, she later became a painter.

2002:

Disney's movie The Country Bears is released nationwide. A live-action comedy, it is Disney's second theatrical film based on an attraction at one of its theme parks and the third overall film based on an attraction following the television film Tower of Terror and the theatrically-released Mission to Mars. Beary Barrinson, a ten-year-old bear cub raised by humans, heads for Tennessee to find his birth family. Along the way, he helps unite the once legendary Country Bear Band for a benefit show to save the Country Bear concert hall. The voice cast

The Lizzie McGuire episode "You're a Good Man, Lizzie McGuire" debuts on Disney Channel as does the Disney Channel Original Movie Gotta Kick It Up. Garnering over one million viewers, Kick It Up is based on a true story of a middle school dance team.

films, TV shows, and theme park attractions, passes away at his home in Sherman

Oaks, California. He is 84. Disney staff composer George Bruns first brought Baker on board to help with the "Davy Crockett" TV series in 1954. Baker went on to compose music for such features as The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, The Apple Dumpling Gang, and The Fox and the Hound. He is probably best known to Disney fans for his Haunted Mansion song "Grim Grinning Ghosts" (which he co-wrote with X Atencio). When Baker retired from Disney in 1983, he was the last contracted music staff composer still on contract at any major Hollywood studio.

The role of Bert in the London production of Mary Poppins passes from Gavin Lee

to Gavin Creel. Tony-nominee Creel replaces Lee in the production at the Prince Edward Theatre as Lee

has been cast in the upcoming Broadway staging of Mary Poppins (which will begin performances in October at

the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City).

1986:

The Disney Channel Premiere Film The Parent Trap II, a made-for-TV sequel to The

Parent Trap, debuts. It stars Hayley Mills (the star of the original Parent Trap) as both Sharon and Susan.

"Uncle Orville's taken over the coolest spot in the house and

he's rigged up a real clever contraption. He calls it air cooling."

-Father in Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress

2007:

Disney's newest stage musicalThe Little Mermaid premieres its workshop run in Denver, Colorado. The show will play at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Performing Arts Complex through September 9, honing in preparation for its Broadway launch in December.

The Pixar Story, a documentary produced, written & directed by Leslie Iwerks (granddaughter of Disney Legend Ub Iwerks), premieres at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Narrated by Stacy Keach, it is a look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios.

ENCORE! Cast Choir And Orchestra (made up of Disney Cast Members) perform "Hollywood! A Musical Tribute to the Silver Screen" at Epcot's World Showplace Pavilion. The first of a 3-night engagement, the performances will benefit the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Central Florida.

The all-cartoon Musical Wonderfilm!

2008:

Some 5.86 million viewers tune in to watch Disney Channel's 3-D concert film Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert.

(Snow White is in production at this time.) Graham's words of wisdom include:

"The only thing an artist has is the fact that he can do something that can't be done with a machine. He should say to himself, "Am I going to let a machine work me out of a job and a profession?" That is what it is going to do, unless the artist keeps moving. It is up to him. As long as jobs have to be done, and have to be done economically, the rotoscope is the quickest way to do it, the challenge will always be there. So it is up to the artist to deliver. He must do a drawing and say, "See here - my drawing may not be perfect as far as realism is concerned, but it has a spirit the rotoscope can never give you."

(A technique invented by Max Fleischer, rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films.)

"I remember arriving at the theatre and being helped from the vehicle by the Mad

Hatter. Yes, Walt was there, and it was wonderful having pictures taken with him. He looked so handsome in his tuxedo!" -Kathryn Beaumont

July 26

This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL

Traveling in time since 1999!

2013:

Although born July 20, for Charlie Ridgway's 90th birthday, Orlando Mayor

Buddy Dyer proclaims July 26, 2013, "Charles Ridgway Day" in the city of Orlando.

Now retired, Ridgway was a hard-charging newsman who made the leap from newspaper reporter to ace

media legend as the head of Public Relations for Walt Disney World Resort.

2017:

Voice actress and comedian Patricia "Patti" Deutsch Ross passes away at age 73 in Los Angeles, California. A frequent panelist on the TV game shows Match Game and Tattletales, she also provided voices for Disney films and television shows. Her credits included Tarzan (1999), The Emperor's New

Groove, Monsters, Inc.(2001),Kronk's New Groove (2005), and The Emperor's New School (2007-2008).

Voice actress June Foray, best known as the voice of the animated character Rocky the Flying Squirrel (on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show), passes away at age 99 in Los Angeles, California. With a career encompassing radio, theatrical shorts, feature films, television, record albums, video games, and talking toys, Foray supplied the voice of Witch Hazel for the Disney short Trick or Treat, Lucifer for Disney's feature Cinderella, Mrs. Featherby for Disney's DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and Grandmother Fa for Disney's direct-to-video Mulan II. Her vast television voice credits include Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears.

1979:

Disney's live-action feature Unidentified Flying Oddball (known in the U.K. asThe Spaceman and King Arthur) is released to theaters. A comedy about an astronaut and his android double who travel back to the time of King Arthur, it features Dennis Dugan, Jim Dale, Ron Moody, and Kenneth More. It is a twist on Mark Twain's story "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."

1991:

Hollywood Pictures releases V.I. Warshawski, a film directed by Jeff Kanew and

whose body is later pulled out of Lake Michigan, leaving her to look after his 13-year-old daughter. Warshawski

finds herself not only tracking down a murderer, but protecting the child from the local mobsters.

1945:

Actress Helen Mirren is born Dame Helen Lydia Mirren in London, England. Her Disney/Touchstone film credits include Raising Helen, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Monsters University, The Hundred-Foot Journey, and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.

2019:

Russi Taylor, the longtime official voice of Minnie Mouse, passes away in Glendale, California, at age 75. The Disney Legend first assumed the role of Minnie Mouse over 30 years ago after she

beat out more than 200 others during a 1986 audition. Taylor voiced the character in hundreds of Disney projects,